Billionaire Launches Lawsuit Against Facebook For Failing To Prevent Ad Scams

Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest has filed a criminal lawsuit against Facebook, alleging that the social media platform has failed to prevent scams using his image. 

He said that this was the first time Facebook would be facing an international criminal case, and accused the site of breaching Australian anti-money laundering legislation by allowing hoax cryptocurrency advertisements.

According to the BBC, while Meta has yet to comment on Forrest’s allegations, it said it was “committed to keeping those people [scammers] off our platform.”

The scam advertisements, which are said to have appeared back in 2019, used images of Forrest and other celebrities to promote false investment opportunities. He said the site was “criminally reckless” for not doing more to get rid of the posts.

“I’m concerned about innocent Australians being scammed through clickbait advertising on social media,” said the mining magnate. 

“This action is being taken on behalf of those everyday Australians—mums and dads, grans and grandads—who work all their lives to gather their savings and to ensure those savings aren’t swindled away by scammers,” he added.

News.com.au reports that Forrest wants the tech giant to do more with its “vast resources and billions of dollars in annual revenue” to protect the vulnerable against bad actors.

“Social media is part of our lives, but I want more to be done to ensure fraud on social media platforms is eliminated or significantly reduced,” he remarked.

The charges against Facebook will be heard in the Magistrates Court of Western Australia from March 28.

[via BBC and News.com.au, cover image via Kianlin | Dreamstime.com]